THERE is a future out there – not in a parallel universe but right here in this one – in which the inexorable decline of wildlife and rise of global temperatures are both stemmed. For the first time we have a tool that can tell us how.

That tool is a “nature in a box” model, capable of replicating the minute and complex ways in which ecosystems respond to human meddling. We can visualise just how much damage humanity has done to Earth’s biodiversity so far, and play the model forward to see how wilderness will …